


Prompt 11 (Rhea)

by Yoselin



Series: Starship Promise Tumblr Prompts [11]
Category: Starship Promise (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 12:23:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16137179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoselin/pseuds/Yoselin
Summary: Name used here is Cadey. Originally posted to Tumblr.Prompt: Rhea and MC look at childhood photos together.





	Prompt 11 (Rhea)

There’s something magical about photographs. To think that one moment can be captured forever by a lens is mind boggling. The human mind can only remember so much, but cameras preserve forever.   
My fingers trace the edges of the tablet in my lap. A young girl about 10 sits sandwiched between two guys. One I recognize as Orion, even as a kid he has the shine of leadership in his eyes, and the other as Antares, with his serious smile and parted hair. The kids stand before a brick building, their homes in their home colony no doubt, and they sit pressed against one another as if they can’t go moments without each other. It’s heartwarming to see such a strong friendship in one image.   
“When was this?” I ask. I lift the tablet in my hands for Rhea to see.   
Rhea sits next to me on the couch. Her own tablet is open to some more photos and she has a mug of something warm. She glances at the tablet and a warm smile graces her features.   
“I remember that,” she muses, “it was the summer we decided to go into the military. We were just kids then, but we knew we wanted to be something more. I think that photo was taken around the time when we were discussing what we would do once we enlisted.”  
“Enlisted into the Empire,” I voice out.   
I wince a bit to myself, remembering the list of crimes the Empire has committed, and slide my finger across the screen. The previous photo disappears before Rhea can have more time to dwell on it.   
Her memory is still fuzzy around the edges. The Empire did everything they could to make her their perfect amnesiac soldier. I had been the one to recommend looking at old photos together to help jog her memory. Orion had a stock of photos from his childhood sitting in his tablet. He had forwarded each of them to us in a heartbeat. Rhea and I had been pouring over all of them trying to see what she could remember.   
Of course, sharing memories was personal and difficult to do. So, to ease some of Rhea’s apprehension, I had shared some of my own photos in turn. It took some digging around and calls to my parents, but I had found an album on my tablet from my childhood. If I was going to ask Rhea to give me her past, I’d give her mine too.   
“This one’s cute,” Rhea chirps. She shows me the picture on her tablet.   
It’s me from when I was about 7. I am dressed in a school uniform and sit before a science project. It’s a mess of wires and cogwheels and my little hands are stained with motor oil. My smile is bright in the photo and I have a little streak of engine grease on my cheek. I am a big mess.   
I blush and look away. I forgot how embarrassing I was as a kid.   
“Science project,” I explain. I don’t go into the details of it. The nights I had spent pouring over that dumb mess of wires and sparks that hadn’t even earned me a ribbon are too mortifying to go into now.   
Rhea raises an eyebrow and smiles. She has a nice smile, I realize. It’s soft and gives her a more radiant appearance.   
“So you were a little scientific troublemaker even as a kid,” she muses. A giggle leaves her lips and she grins down at the photograph.   
I feel color rise on my face and bite my cheek in protest. Reaching out, I swipe my finger over her screen to distract her with another photo of mine.   
“My parents were scientists, I kind of had to be one,” I defend myself. “Don’t judge.”  
Rhea holds up her hands in a surrender but the corner of her mouth is still tilted up. It’s a hopeless case to argue with her. I decide to just move on and hope she’ll forget all of my embarrassing photos with time.   
I turn back to her album.   
The next photo on Rhea’s set is one where she’s about 13. She stands before what looks like a school and is wearing a uniform of some kind. Her hair is short on her shoulders and she’s beaming at the camera. There is a flush of youth to her face, a gleam of innocent glee in her eyes, and I feel a smile matching hers rise on my lips.   
It is incredible to think that the young girl in the photo will one day grow up to be her now. The thirteen year old girl in the picture will one day grow up into the beauty sitting next to me.   
I trace Rhea’s features mentally as she pours over another one of my photos. Her lips are smiling, her features are soft, and a stray strand of hair falls over her cheeks. She looks breathtaking in the low light coming in from the window. I can’t help the small shiver that runs through my spine.   
Rhea’s name fits her well. There’s almost an otherworldly sense of beauty about her. From her striking silver eyes to her lovely brunette hair, I have to admit that I really like being close to her. I like the smile she gives me when she sees me, the one that lights up her face and makes me want to melt, like the way my name rolls off her tongue, almost like a song, and like the way she makes my heart race with every breath she takes.   
I look away from her, before she catches me staring, and feel my face warm. I have it bad for her and the thought makes me more than a little nervous. Even after all these years, having a crush still isn’t easy.   
I slide my finger across the tablet. The next photo set is of Rhea and the twins again. In this one, they’re teenagers. Rhea sits wedged between them in a sun dress with her long brunette hair tied back. She has her hands clasped in her lap and her face is angled towards Orion. A small blush paints her cheeks and her smile is wide.   
She has a crush on him, I realize. It’s apparent in the way that her body is angled towards him and she leans up to be pressed against his side. Antares is almost forgotten as he gazes at her much the same way she looks at his brother.   
A small pinprick of pain hits me and doubts rise up. Haven’t I seen her give Orion the same looks now? Is she still not over him yet?  
“This one is nice,” I comment absentmindedly. I lean up closer to Rhea to show her the photo.   
Rhea glances at it and her smile comes back full force. She leans closer to the screen to gaze at it.   
“That was a long time ago. I think that was shortly before we enlisted. It was spring and we were hanging out before classes started again the week after.”  
Nostalgia and memories cloud her eyes. The soft smile on her lips turns a little wistful. I wish she would elaborate so that I could understand a little bit more about her past, and guess at where her present lies, but she’s quiet.   
I bite my tongue and stare down at the photo again.   
I knew Rhea had a crush on Orion, the small little cues she gave when in his presence was obvious, but seeing it apparent on a photo is different. There’s a little twinge of pain in the pit of my stomach at the thought. I have once more let my hopes rise up only to be extinguished. I should have known that I had no chance.   
“You three were close?” I hand Rhea the tablet almost as if the photo were too much for me to hold. Truly, I just can’t stand seeing her smile at Orion in that way again. It feels like such a personal moment for them that makes me feel shut out. I bite my lip hard.   
Rhea seems oblivious to my disappointment as she gazes at the photo. She’s smiling again and I wonder if she’s smiling over memories or current feelings.   
“We were,” she nods, “I hope we can stay close.”  
“That’s a little hard to do now,” I whisper under my breath. Antares and Orion don’t exactly radiate brotherly love after all these years. The friendship the three once shared now only exists in pixels.   
A sigh leaves her lips and Rhea’s smile dims just a little. She must have reached my own line of thought too. “Maybe we can hang out more. With time.”  
I make a sound at the back of my throat to feign listening. All I can think about is the obvious crush in the photo. Do those feelings still bear weight now? After all these years, does she still long for him?  
Before I can fall any further down the rabbit hole of my own self torture, Rhea nudges me with her shoulder playfully. I glance back at her and see her beaming. The tablet is off and discarded on the table as she turns her full attention on me. There’s a twinkle in her eyes then and she leans forward. One of her arms wraps around my frame and she embraces me.   
“You’ll come with me right? You’ll help me with them?” She tilts her head to the side. I feel her hair brush against my cheek.   
This close, I can smell her perfume. It’s floral and sweet and it makes my heart race again. My mouth suddenly feels dry.   
“Yeah, yeah I’ll help you with Orion,” I voice aloud.   
It hurts as I say it. Unrequited love is a painful sting I have yet to grow accustomed to. I scratch at my lip and look away from Rhea.   
Why did I say Orion? Why did I promise to help her with him? Why must I make myself hurt?  
I mentally berate myself for making my own life harder. Rhea, however, must miss the self-war waging in my head because her mood remains joyful and undaunted.   
She tightens her embrace and her smile turns softer. “Thanks, Cadey. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”  
She moves away from me and I miss her presence as soon as she’s gone. Still, I reign in my feelings.   
I want Rhea to be happy more than anything. If she will be happier away from my side, then who am I to stand in her way? I’ll help her in any way I can even if it tears me apart to do so.   
I clamp my teeth down on my bottom lip again as Rhea continues to gaze at the photo. Her eyes are cloudy with nostalgia and her mind is years away from me. I would do anything to know what she is thinking.   
When she looks at those photos, does she still feel something for them? Does she miss the girl she was before the Empire? Does she miss the friendship she lost in a gun fight?   
And does she miss Orion perhaps?  
I wince to myself at that last thought and roughly shove it aside. Better not dwell on it any longer than I have to. Poking a mental hornet’s nest is never a good idea.   
“You look happy in all these photos. It’s a nice look on you. You have a great smile,” I murmur.   
She really does. Her grin takes my breath away with every new photograph I look through. I’d give anything to see it all the time.   
A small blush of color rises on Rhea’s cheeks and she quirks one side of her mouth up. She’s pleased with the compliment and I am rewarded with another beautiful smile of hers.   
“I am happy now too. The past is great but my present isn’t so bad either,” Rhea shrugs.   
She leans over to look at more photos. Her finger brush against mine on the tablet screen. Her touch is electric and my heart picks up its rhythm.   
“Would you go back? Would you go back in time and live out these memories again?” I ask her.   
The question startles the both of us. I almost feel like kicking myself after I ask it. It seems I like putting myself in bad situations.   
I steel myself for Rhea to say yes. I can take it. I can take her wanting to go back to the life she had with the twins. I can take her wanting to have Orion at her side and not me. I can take it all because at least it’ll mean that she’ll be happy. As long as her smile never dims, I can bear it all.   
Rhea bites her cheek and glances at the tablet. She’s quiet for a moment, gathering her thoughts, but finally her hand reaches for mine. She intertwines our fingers together and shakes her head.   
“No, I think the past should stay in the past. I like my present.”  
I release a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. A burden is lifted off my shoulders. I give her fingers a little squeeze in turn.   
“You were happy then,” I remind her.   
Rhea leans forward in another embrace. Her head rests on my shoulder and she clicks the tablet off. It seems she is done dwelling on memories for now.   
“I am happy now too,” she repeats, “I’ll take this over that. I miss Orion and Antares and the life I had, but this one isn’t so bad. I have you at my side after all.”  
Tension lifts from my shoulders and I close my eyes. Hearing those words make me happier than what I could ever say. It is a huge relief to know that she would rather stay here with me than go back to Orion and the memories she once had. I can breathe a little easier now.   
I lean my head on hers and we ease into the sofa. I don’t know whether she still likes Orion today or whether our title of friends still fits whatever this is, but it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we are here in this moment now. The past is sweet but the present has so much more to offer.   
“I like having you here too. I want to be a part of your present,” I whisper.   
I don’t mean for her to hear it, but she does anyway. I feel the little shake of her shoulders as she laughs quietly. Moments later, her reply is barely above a whisper.   
“Well, if you want, you can have my future too.”


End file.
